Vail Kozatch: Medicare for all isn’t free

Creating a Medicare for all system would be worth it because it would cost a lot less than what we’re currently paying for our insurance right now.

Everyone would pay a fixed percentage in withholding, just as those eligible for Medicare usage do, but that’s where the patient costs will end. Everyone would have quality, comprehensive health care for life.

With a Medicare for all system, the money we currently shell out to insurance companies — so that they can ration or deny our care — would stay in our own wallets.

Consider this if Medicare for all went into effect:

• Premiums, deductibles and co-pays — gone.

• Annual enrollment — gone.

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• Being forced to choose your doctors from a predetermined list — gone.

• Risking bankruptcy if you get sick — gone.

• Wild price disparities between different providers for the same treatment — gone.

• Denial of care due to inability to pay — gone.

• Insurance companies interfering with doctor treatment plans — gone.

• Health coverage dependent upon employment — gone.

The pharmaceutical companies and corporate medicine industries that send lobbyists to Washington are not in it for public wellness. Their ad campaigns are intentionally designed to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt to all of us so that we believe they are the source of wellness.

With the new Congress saddling up in January, we have an opportunity to finally secure quality healthcare for all. Are there glitches now and will there continue to be for some time? Of course. Something this large will take time and effort to work. However, the glitches are minor compared to going bankrupt if you, your friends and loved ones get sick.

Write, call and email Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton. Tell them you are ready to put the U.S. on the list of developed nations who take care of their citizens. Tell them you are ready to stop filling the deep pockets of Big Pharma, corporate medicine and the insurance companies.